28 February 2009

Spending the afternoon with friends at the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition at Fort Mason. 1,500 wineries pouring 4,235 wines. The competition is over (for results click here), and today is an open house event for the general public.

Virgin Megastore has announced that it will close its San Francisco location at the end of April. NYC's Times Square store closes then too, with the Union Square store following at the end of May. That leaves the chain with three remaining locations: Denver, Orlando, and Hollywood. However an industry insider tells me today that those three stores will shutter in May as well. Virgin just isn't saying so yet because they are trying to negotiate an exit with their landlords. Sad, sad, sad.

Everyone is buying their music via download off the web these days. (Hell, I can't even remember the last time I bought a CD.) Between that and the economy, music stores are closing at a fast and furious rate.

The move from CD to download is innovation at its finest. Such innovation is the engine that keeps American business moving forward (think of the global move from vinyl to CD). And while I understand that I contributed to their demise, the closing of stores like Tower and Virgin is bittersweet for a music buff like me.

With all the blustering and cowboy talk of the Bush/Cheney regime, as well as their fascist enablers in the congress, they never did catch Osama bin Laden, did they? In fact, it turns out they didn't make much progress on that whole "making America safe" thing. But now the Obama administration is about to do something the Bush team never did: Punish a member of the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

After spending the last five years confined to a military prison, without charges or a trial, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Mari, the alleged Al Qaeda "sleeper agent" was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Peoria, Illinois on multiple terrorism charges.

Yup, the grown-ups are in charge again. And my assessment of Mr. Bush as the worst president ever stands firm.

President Obama and senior administration officials have begun receiving a daily CIA report on the global economic crisis in addition to briefings on terrorist threats and other national security issues, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday.

The CIA's role in producing the report underscores the level of anxiety within the administration over how rapidly the economic downturn is spreading, as well as its potential to hobble foreign governments and trigger instability overseas.

And the do-nothing Republicans rail against administration efforts to stabilize the economy? 2010 candidates, take note...this an opportunity to beat the fascists in the GOP at their own game. "Why do Republicans support the terrorists?"

26 February 2009

Brent has been out of the house all week, staying at a downtown hotel while his company puts on their big San Francisco conference. Chloe is none too pleased. As I was getting ready to crawl into bed last night, there she was...ears back and paws on his pillow, as if to say, "Where the hell is Daddy and when is he coming home?"

All of the sudden Republican lawmakers are concerned about deficit spending. Never mind that the last president (a Republican), in concert with a Republican congress, pillaged the Unites States Treasury for eight years, spending like drunken sailors and leaving a mountain of debt for the next generation.

Give me a break. Americans aren't that stupid. They know the Republicans have absolutely no credibility on budgetary issues of any kind. In fact, since 1968 the only two presidents to preside over federal budget surpluses were Democrats...Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton:

For the record, of the 35 years of budget deficits graphed above, Republicans held the presidency for 28. Although Clinton ran deficits in his first term, it is plainly evident that he was lowering them until, eventually, they turned into surpluses. Carter ran deficits as well, and while I'm not defending him, a look at the graph above shows he kept them low. Our debt didn't start spinning out of control until Reagan took office.

The fascists on the right will argue that the Reagan deficits came from a Democratic-controlled congress. Not so fast. Check your facts.

The Senate was in Republican hands for six of Reagan's eight years as president; Reagan's budget deals were always passed in the House by a combination of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats; and the president didn't veto a single budget. The Bushes kept up the tradition, both of them breaking deficit records during their terms in office.

So when the Republicans start railing about deficit spending, Americans need not take them seriously. The party of Hoover, Reagan, and Bush are not responsible stewards of our nation's economy. They are hypocritical obstructionist partisans. And that is why they have been relegated to the minority.

Move over Hermes Birkin, a new high-end ladies handbag is about to give you a whole lot of competition. International champagne giant Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin calls it the "Clicquot Traveler." This fabulous new clutch is designed to hold your most prized travel companions: two custom designed champagne flutes and a 750ml bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label champagne. AND...brace yourself...not only do the Cliquot Travelers function as on-the-go champagne coolers, but if you toss out the "cooling neoprene" they double as stylish handbags, vanity cases, and weekend totes.

I know exactly what you're thinking...."Oh my gaaaawwwd! I SO need a new Cliquot Traveler!"

Priced at $50.00, the Traveler is available at Costco and other high-falutin' white trash stores while supplies last.

And for those "women on the go" who are watching their budgets in these recessionary times, the Gallo Family presents this rather bulky yet affordable wine purse. Calling it an "easy to carry handbag equivalent to 2 bottles of wine," this unfortunately designed purse/box retails for a mere $22.95. However, unlike the Cliquot Traveler, this one does not double as a evening handbag (unless, of course, you require nothing for your evening but cheap wine at the ready).

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 1003 Feb. 18 by a wide margin, 83 to 13, resolving, "That the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. "The language of HJR 1003 further serves notice to the federal government "to cease and desist, effectively immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers."

The actions of these fascist-fucks would be laughable if they weren't so scary. I don't know about you, but when I read things like this I smell the beginnings of a secessionist effort by these bat-shit lunatics.

25 February 2009

I found this clip on YouTube last Thursday and saved it to "My Favorites" page so that I could post it here today as this week's "Mid-Week Brain Break." Alas, it's found its way across the web since then, and many of you may have already seen it. None the less, here it is. (ie: I didn't have a back-up.)

According to Dan Savage, the recent announcement by Kellogg, that it would not renew its endorsement contract with Michael Phelps after a photo of the gold medalist smoking pot surfaced, has cost the cereal maker dearly.

Of 5,600 companies measured by the Vanno business index, Kellogg has dropped from #9 to #83 in the last month.

Said Savage:

Not even an industry-wide peanut scare inflicted as much damage on the food company's reputation.

One look at Elton John's discography and you can only be amazed at the man's output these last 40 years. He continually generates brilliant pieces of music. However, on the flip side, he's hit some pretty nasty rough patches as well.

1985's "Ice on Fire" album is probably the most prominent case in point. The album didn't even crack the top 40, and was slammed up one side and down the other by the critics. But despite the criticism and the anemic performance of the LP, the set actually spawned two hit singles for John. "Nikita," which hit #7 in early 1986, and this piece of crap. Sung as a duet with George Michael, today's shitty diddy is a #20 single from late 1985.

24 February 2009

He truly is the Ronald Reagan of the left: Confident, in control, and literate; offering high hopes and big aspirations.

President Obama addressed a joint session of congress this evening, offering up a sober assessment of the tremendous mess left behind by the Bush administration, and a tough prescription for the bitter medicine we'll all have to swallow in order to clean it up.

If there remained any Americans out there still unsure about this guy - even after his decisive election, even after the naming of his cabinet, even after his administration's performance since taking office - tonight's speech surely put those reservations to rest. The bat shit wing nuts are gone, and the grownups are back at the helm.

For those who don't get the joke, here is the first part of Jindal's actual speech for comparison...

Update: Jason Linkins, over at Huffington Post, compares Jindal's speech with another "Kenneth the Page" video and asks readers to "close your eyes and see if you can detect any specific difference between [Kenneth] and Jindal's opening paragraphs." Click here to compare.

Chosen in large part because of his refusal to accept stimulus money earmarked for his state, Gov. Bobby Jindal (Republican-LA) will give the official Republican response to President Obama's congressional address this evening.

Never mind that he was more than happy to take federal money from the Bush administration for Hurricane Katrina clean up. Jindal doesn't want this money because it comes from a Democratic president, and accepting it would not sit well with the bat-shit wing-nuts who make up the Republican Party base - a group he needs to pander to like crazy if he is to have any shot at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

In addition to Jindal, Gov. Mark Sanford (Republican-SC) is threatening not to take stimulus money for his state either - never mind that his state has a 9.5% unemployment rate. When asked yesterday by one of his constituents on C-SPAN why he was putting partisan politics above the dire needs of his state, Sanford stated that he would pray for the man. Typical wing-nut answer...religion will save you. (For the record, Sanford is also mulling over a presidential run in 2012.)

Jindal and Sanford, as well as Republican Governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Sarah Palin of Alaska (also refusing the money and also contenders for 2012), prove beyond a doubt that the Republican Party is rudderless and irrelevant. Even after two consecutive election losses, the party seems to be stuck in obstructionist mode, making really tired moves out of their 1995 playbook, and unable to bring anything of substance to the table. They would much rather pander to the fascist wing-nuts that make up their party's base than accept help from the federal government during this extremely precarious economic time.

Forget praying for your constituent Gov. Sanford. He's probably praying for you this morning. Because if you refuse the stimulus money, you won't be elected dog catcher, let alone president.

A shout out to Maya, who reminded me of this shitty diddy from 1983. The song went to #7 here in the U.S. for Canadian Corey Hart that year, and was the first of nine (nine?!) top 40 hits for the hapless wonder.

You do have to admit though, Corey was pretty damn easy on the eyes. Still..."Sunglasses at Night"...yikes...definitely one of the shittiest diddies of the entire decade.

23 February 2009

The highlights of last night's Oscar telecast were, without a doubt, the acceptance speeches given by Sean Penn, Best Actor for "Milk," and Dustin Lance Black, who won Best Original Screenplay for the same film.

Their passionate and pitch-perfect comments below.

If you listened very carefully last night, you could hear the heads of bat-shit wing-nut crazies exploding all across the south.

I've never achieved a perfect score with my Oscar predictions before (and I've been making predictions since I wrote for the high school newspaper), but this year the stars seemed to align just right. Seven for seven in the major categories!

22 February 2009

The Best Actor category at this evening's Academy Awards is said to be a two-man race between Sean Penn in "Milk" and Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler." They split the two big pre-Oscar prizes (Rourke took the Golden Globe, Penn the SAG Award), and the movie punditry is split down the middle in their predictions for this evening.

I think Penn has the edge, if only because Rourke's reputation may not sit well with Academy members. While Hollywood loves a good comeback story, the expletives that might fill the stage in the event of a Rourke win probably kept many from casting their vote for him.

Case in point...yesterday's acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards:

I mean...come on. The Academy and ABC-TV have to be shitting their pants over what he might say. And while some may disagree with my reasoning, I stand by my contention that Mickey Rourke will lose votes over the bad-boy reputation. Whether he loses enough votes to lose the category is the question of the night.

21 February 2009

Socks, the beloved White House cat during the Clinton administration, died yesterday after being euthanized following a diagnosis of cancer in his jaw. He was 20.

Born in 1989, Socks was adopted by the Clintons in 1991 after he jumped into the arms of Chelsea Clinton as she was leaving the house of her piano teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas. When Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992, Socks moved with the family to the White House, where he remained until the end of the administration in January, 2001.

Since then, the feline has lived with Betty Currie, Clinton's secretary during his presidency.

On March 5, the bat-shit wing-nuts, led by Ken Starr, will ask the California Supreme Court to nullify the marriages of 18,000 devoted same-sex couples who were able to get married before Prop 8 passed last November. The Courage Campaign has started an on-line letter and petition asking the Court to reject Ken Starr's case and the couples remain married. The campaign is also asking the Court to invalidate Prop 8 all together.

20 February 2009

Once again my movie-going habits fell by the wayside this year. Keep that in mind as you read this year's Oscar predictions...

Best Picture

All indications point to an easy win for "Slumdog Millionaire." It's the type of film Academy voters like to honor, although "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" falls into that category as well. Either one of them, I think, has a shot; and if there is some sort of overwhelming liberal sentiment over the passing of Prop 8 in California, then "Milk" might upset. But the momentum is on "Slumdog's" side.

Best Actress

This is actually a two woman race between Meryl Streep in "Doubt" and Kate Winslet in "The Reader." Streep has won twice before, but the last time was in 1982. Still, three Oscars for acting isn't the norm (exceptions for Katherine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson), and Streep's 15 nominations to date are an award in and of themselves. Still, if the groundswell for Winslet isn't strong enough (and that is very possible), then a third statuette for Streep isn't out of the question. Don't count her out.

In the end though, I think Kate Winslet will emerge the victor on Sunday night. With five previous nominations in the past 12 years, the sixth time should be the charm for her.

Best Actor

Now THIS is a true horse race. In "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourke has achieved a career comeback that no Hollywood insider would have predicted a year or two ago. As a result, the momentum seemed to be on Rourke's side during the awards season. But Sean Penn, it seems, is enjoying a slight resurgence for his spot-on performance in "Milk." Some in Hollywood think liberal Academy members will mark their ballots for Penn in an effort to protest the passage of Proposition 8 in California last November. Then again, the Academy's conservative wing was able to block "that gay cowboy" movie from winning the Best Picture prize a few years back. So who knows?

The one thing going against Penn is the fact that he won in this category five years ago. And while that doesn't automatically rule him out (Hillary Swank and Jodi Foster won their first and second Oscars within the same time frame), it does decrease his odds a wee bit.

Despite the comeback, Rourke's reputation is rather sullied with the Hollywood insider types who make up the motion picture Academy. His bad boy, self destructive image could be enough to move votes away from him. Then again, Hollywood loves a comeback.

So, what do I think? It's a tough one. For my own sentimental reasons I'm going to predict Sean Penn as the winner here. His performance as Harvey Milk is the best acting I've seen since Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain."

Best Supporting Actress

As always, this category confounds me. There is no clear leader here and predictions from others are all over the place, with Penelope Cruz seeming to have the slight edge. Amy Adams and Marisa Tomei seem to be Academy favorites in recent years, but I think their chances of victory this year are small. Viola Davis will probably split the "Doubt" vote with Adams. That leaves Taraji P. Henson for her role in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." With 13 nominations, this presents the film's only real chance at one of the major Oscars. So I think Henson is the dark horse. And don't forget, the Academy is notorious for throwing curve balls in this category.

As for my prediction...I'll be safe and go with Penelope Cruz for her role in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." If the past is any indication (Michael Caine, Mira Sorvino, Dianne Wiest - twice), the Academy likes to honor Allen's actors in these supporting categories.

Best Supporting Actor

Heath Ledger wins. Hands down. Period.

Best Director

Danny Boyle takes it for "Slumdog Millionaire," unless there is a "Milk" or "Benjamin Button" groundswell.

On this winter day, people go out at noon, wave their hands over their heads and chant "Hoodie-Hoo".

It is a day to chase away winter and bring in spring. After all, everyone in the northern hemisphere are sick and tired of winter at this point and a little crazy being cooped up inside all winter and not seeing the sun.

1985's "Falling For Your Love" was one of the schmalzy ones. As always, the brothers and sisters nail it vocally (when it came to harmonizing, the Jacksons had nothing on these guys), but the track is over synthesized, way too heavy on the base, and the lyrics are the epitome of sophomoric.

Has the current economic downturn turned into a depression? If the current jobless numbers are any indication, the answer could well be "yes."

The number of laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits hit an all-time high of nearly 5 million, and new jobless claims are at levels not seen since the early 1980s. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people receiving regular unemployment benefits rose by 170,000 to 5 million for the week ending Feb. 7, marking the fourth straight week [unemployment] claims have hit a record.

And Business Week's Michael Mandel thinks the coming decade will be about as dire as the Great Depression.

Personally, I think things will definitely get worse before they get better. But a ten year recession/depression? Ugh. It's only 6am and already I need a stiff drink!

19 February 2009

Out of 9,493 Election Day predictions posted on DailyKos (presidential popular vote, electoral vote, Senate breakdown, and House breakdown), my prediction came in at 8,553rd.

My predictions vs. the real results (in parentheses):

Presidential popular vote:Obama 51.2% (53.0%)McCain 47.0% (45.6%)

Electoral College:Obama 311 (365)McCain 227 (173)

Senate:Democrats 58 (58*)Republicans 42 (41*)*We are still awaiting the outcome in the Minnesota race.

House:Democrats 249 (257)Republicans 186 (178)

The day before the election, I posted my thinking behind the predictions. You can see that post by clicking here. I thought for sure there was going to be a slight "Bradley effect." Nothing serious enough to lose Obama the election, but I thought white rural voters in Indiana and Ohio, as well as white confederates in North Carolina and Florida would swing those states to McCain.

Needless to say, I was (and still am) beyond thrilled that I was wrong.

Westboro Baptist Church haters Fred and Shirley Phelps have planned a trip to the U.K. to protest tomorrow's production of "The Laramie Project" in Basingstoke, Hampshire. However, officials say Fred and Shirley won't be allowed into the country:

The pair will be stopped by immigration officials if they arrive and placed straight on a flight back to the U.S.

Well, now, wait a minute. We don't want them back. Can't we simply leave them in some sort of diplomatic limbo out over the Atlantic? Or perhaps a lovely, barren island up near the Arctic?

Bay City Rollers front man Les McKeown recently confessed to his wife of 30 years...on a reality TV show...that he spent their entire marriage cheating on her with other men.

McKeown then told his wife that he's "90 percent fixed," but because he's been an alcoholic for 30 years "the other 10 percent is going to take a little longer."

In other words, he wants to remain married and still be able to sneak around and play with men on the side.

Sigh.

There is a certain temptation to poke fun at Les over this. After all, he made this confession on reality TV. But the tragedy of the situation prevents me from going there.

McKeown has been doing this his entire life. To admit now that he is a homosexual, to confess that he has lived his entire life as one big lie, goes against everything he has known. Moreover, it could be argued that coming out of the closet might destroy his family; but using British TV to admit his penchant for men probably dealt him that blow.

I hope he deals with the issue eventually. This is 2009, after all. He should be able to live his life on his own terms. The question is, can a lifetime of supression bring him to that realization?

Side note: For those not "in the know," the Bay City Rollers had a string of bubble-gum pop hits in the 70s, including the two-million seller "Saturday Night" (#1), and two other top ten million sellers, "Money Honey" (#9) and "You Made Me Believe In Magic" (#7):

UC Berkeley professor Brad DeLong has written the university's chancellor, asking that fellow professor John Yoo be fired. While Yoo worked in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration, he provided the president with legal advice that has since been dubbed the "torture memo," essentially giving the president wide latitude in the treatment of prisoners taken during the conduct of the war against terrorism.

I am no legal scholar - far from it - but it seems to me that legal opinions such as the one Woo gave Bush should come from judges and not Justice Department flunkies. I mean, if I had a lawyer write me a letter saying it was ok to kidnap and beat the homeless man who, once a week or so, camps out across the street because I thought he was a threat to my home, that wouldn't make it legal. I would be charged with assault, and the lawyer could be threatened with disbarment.

You sad, stinking piece of crap. Haven't the people of Illinois already been through the ringer? Do they really have to go through it again for the sole reason of stroking your tremendously over sized ego?!? Come on, man...it's time to call it day.

According to the New York Times, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (Democrat-KS) is expected to be nominated as President Obama's Health and Human Services Secretary.

Sebelius, an early ally of Obama's, and someone who is believed to have been on his V.P. short list, was expected to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. However, when Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to the HHS post, Sebelius became the early favorite to head the department that will tackle the health care issue in Mr. Obama's administration.

18 February 2009

Reaching out to the world’s most populous Muslim country and the boyhood home of her new boss, Secretary of State Clinton traveled to Indonesia on Wednesday to pay tribute to its hard-won political freedoms.

...Reaching out to the world’s most populous Muslim country and the boyhood home of her new boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Indonesia on Wednesday to pay tribute to its hard-won political freedoms.

According to the Pew Research Center, that is Barack Obama's approval rating four weeks into his presidency.

Even sweeter still, 46% of moderate Republicans approve of the President's job performance so far while only 30% of that group disapprove. It seems Republican disapproval of Mr. Obama is restricted to the bat-shit wing-nuts (28% approval vs. 47% disapproval).

While she may, like, have the speaking skills, like, of her mother...Bristol Palin showed a tad bit more intelligence on the issues of family planning, teenage sex, and abstinence during an interview with Faux News yesterday.

On the issue of abstinence:

I think abstinence is, like — like, the — I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.

Whoo! I see a dazzling career in Alaska politics for this real life Juno. But, I digress.

In the mean time, Republican-Fascist wing nuts have gone absolutely bat shit over Bristol's denunciation of abstinence, and over the fact that she and her Baby Daddy have yet to marry.

Wait.

What?

The fascists haven't gone bat shit? Aaahh...that's right. Being a right-wing nut job is all about judging others while ignoring very inconvenient truths about your own.

Good gawd! Did we dodge a bullet with these Wasilla Hillbillies or what?

In an effort to keep the President's promises of transparency and accountability, the White House yesterday launched a new website: Recovery.gov. The idea is to keep Americans informed on how the economic stimulus bill is working, where the money is going, when it's being spent, etc. It even includes a section for public comment.

A week from today Obama will convene a fiscal responsibility summit in Washington designed to examine entitlement reform.

In addition to an eventual tax hike, addressing the issues of Social Security and Medicare are part of a series of bitter pills the American public are going to have to swallow over the coming decade if our country has any hope of putting its financial house back in order.

How nice to have a president ready to tackle these problems. The questions now are: Will congress follow his lead? And, will the American public be able to stomach the fix?

When it comes right down to it, if we are to keep ourselves from economic oblivion, they'll have to.

Because their hands are tied by an absolutely idiotic rule requiring a 2/3 vote of the state legislature to pass the state budget, today the state of California will halt all public works projects and lay off 20,000 state workers.

The hold up? They need just one Republican in the state senate to achieve the 2/3 needed to pass the budget. But, as usual, the GOP aren't cooperating.

Update: The state senate went back into session at 10am this morning and will not be adjourned until a bill is passed. "We will put the tax bill on call and we will stay on this floor until we get it done," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. "Bring a toothbrush, bring whatever necessities you need to bring because I will not allow anyone to go home to resume their lives."

Listening to President Obama, I was struck by how well he understands that most voters are not driven by ideology and are not searching for politically orthodox leadership. Most want leaders who speak to their needs — especially in this time of economic crisis — and a government that works.

Republicans in Congress — all but completely united in their effort to build a wall of obstruction in the path of President Obama’s economic revitalization effort — seem to be missing this essential point.

When I asked [the President] if there was any reason to believe that the G.O.P. had made a good-faith effort at bipartisanship, given the fact that only three Republicans voted for the stimulus plan in the Senate and none in the House, he said he did not want to question the motives or sincerity of those who opposed the plan.

But he made a point of adding, “Now, I have to say that given that they were running the show for a pretty long time prior to me getting there, and that their theory was tested pretty thoroughly and it’s landed us in the situation where we’ve got over a trillion-dollars’ worth of debt and the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, I think I have a better argument in terms of economic thinking.”

...beyond his specific policies (and whether one supports them or not), Mr. Obama is emerging as the very model of the type of person one would want in high public office. He is intelligent, mature, thoughtful, calm in the face of crises and, if the nation is lucky, maybe even wise.

No one knows how well the economic stimulus will work, if it does anything at all. But one thing Americans do know right now is that the Republican Party are acting as obstructionists when they should be functioning as a loyal opposition who bring productive arguments to the table during this time of economic peril.

16 February 2009

This one goes out to B-man, Beth, Chris, Laura, Jeff, and Susan. Many years ago we all spent a February Tuesday down in Los Angeles, visiting Universal Studios and then heading over to Studio City for a taping of "Will and Grace." It would be the first of three tapings Brent and I attended during the show's run (the other two being the episode where Rosanna Arquette played Grace's neighbor, and the episode where Will finds out his father is having an affair with his mother). But that first taping, with those six friends, will always be the one that sticks out most in my mind.

Sandra Bernhardt was the guest star in an episode where Will and Grace befriend the entertainer by placing a bogus bid on her Manhattan condo. For those who know Brent, if you ever run across this episode in reruns be sure to listen for his big ol' belly laugh. You can hear it in just about every scene.

...the new math of Obama-era politics gives Maine influence out of proportion to its size."

The reason: Democrats need to woo Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to pass legislation in the U.S. Senate.

The Democrats have 58 members in the Senate (if you include two independents who caucus with that side of the aisle), and the Republicans have 41 members. There used to be a day when such a comfortable majority would roll most legislation through for the president's signature without much effort. If a member of the opposition wanted to filibuster, they would have to stand up and give speeches, debate the issue, or in some other fashion delay voting on the bill in question by speaking non-stop until the body was able to put together 60 votes to put an end to the action. (Read a book, read the Bible, read a pamphlet...anything, so long as they kept speaking. This was portrayed brilliantly in the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.")

However, the last decade or so has seen the Senate rule on the filibuster change. Continuous floor speeches are no longer required, and it seems that each and every bill that reaches the floor must, essentially, be passed by a super-majority of 60 votes.

If the stimulus bill was a case study in how the current Republican minority plans to approach President Obama's agenda, then things are going to get much more cantankerous over the next couple of years as the Republicans demand a super-majority on anything and everything.

As such, when any Senator (Republican or Democrat) asks for 60 votes to move legislation forward, Majority Leader Harry Reid should exercise his right under the Senate rules to require a traditional filibuster, requiring each member who makes such a request to stand on the Senate floor and speak, non-stop, until they voluntarily end the action themselves, or until the chamber can muster the 60 votes needed to stop it. And if that takes 4 hours, 12 hours, or several days, then so be it. But it's time to stop abusing the filibuster.

13 February 2009

Openly gay comedian Wanda Sykes will host this year's White House correspondents dinner on May 9, 2009. "The first thing I did when they asked me to do this gig — I made sure my taxes were paid," quipped Sykes.

One might have expected Republicans to act at least slightly chastened in these early days of the Obama administration, given both their drubbing in the last two elections and the economic debacle of the past eight years.

But it’s now clear that the party’s commitment to deep voodoo...is as strong as ever. In both the House and the Senate, the vast majority of Republicans rallied behind the idea that the appropriate response to the abject failure of the Bush administration’s tax cuts is more Bush-style tax cuts.

And the rhetorical response of conservatives to the stimulus plan — which will, it’s worth bearing in mind, cost substantially less than either the Bush administration’s $2 trillion in tax cuts or the $1 trillion and counting spent in Iraq — has bordered on the deranged.

It’s “generational theft,” said [2008 presidential loser] John McCain, just a few days after voting for tax cuts that would, over the next decade, have cost about four times as much.

And the ugliness of the political debate matters because it raises doubts about the Obama administration’s ability to come back for more if, as seems likely, the stimulus bill proves inadequate.

For while Mr. Obama got more or less what he asked for, he almost certainly didn’t ask for enough. We’re probably facing the worst slump since the Great Depression. The Congressional Budget Office, not usually given to hyperbole, predicts that over the next three years there will be a $2.9 trillion gap between what the economy could produce and what it will actually produce. And $800 billion, while it sounds like a lot of money, isn’t nearly enough to bridge that chasm.

Officially, the administration insists that the plan is adequate to the economy’s need...And it’s widely believed that political considerations led to a plan that was weaker and contains more tax cuts than it should have...

John Cole responds:

...for all I know, he may be right- that may be what the economy needs, the current bill may be inadequate, and so on.

But the point remains that a larger bill was not political feasible. At all. The current bill just barely [got] the support from the three Republicans it [needed to prevent a filibuster in the Senate]. A bigger bill simply could not happen in this climate.

This is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the Republicans in congress have offered no credible reason for opposing the stimulus bill (they can't argue against budget deficits after spending the last eight years backing the Bush budgets on the premise that "deficits don't matter"); nor can the minority party offer any real alternative that hasn't already been tried and found wanting.

The way I see it, the Republican fascists must think Americans are extremely stupid; that after eight years of driving our financial house over a cliff, we'll all instantly forget that it was their party who had control of the government until recently.

Time is of the essence here, and if the Republican Party can't find it in themselves to pitch in and help, then fuck them. Going forward, if the White House or the congressional majorities feel additional stimulus is needed, then let the Republicans have their temper-tantrums. If they continue to block such measures it will more than likely backfire, and they'll find themselves on the losing end of yet another election in 2010.

...the United States is compiling the best possible team we could have at this time to deal with the threat to our national interests posed by a continuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict. President Barack Obama is, by all accounts, as intellectually engaged with the complexities of the region and how they impact American interests as as any president since Eisenhower. He has compiled a team at the State Department and the National Security Council of hard headed realists committed to promoting US interests in the Middle East who recognize many of the linkages between ending Israel's occupations, a successful US withdrawal from Iraq, a successful negotiation of our relationship with Iran, our wars in Afghanistan/Pakistan, and bringing al-Qaeda to justice.

-Amjad Atallah, Co-Director of the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force, guest-posting Wednesday at the Washington Note.

The title of the post is "The Best Possible Team at the Worst Possible Time." Following the worst team ever at the worst possible time, the presidency of Barack Obama is exactly what the world needs right now.

"Knee-deep in the hoop-la??" Sure. If by "hoop-la" you mean one big pile of stinking, steaming crap.

After two decades worth of classics like "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love," Grace Jones and the band probably secured their retirement with this single and its album; but only they can truly measure the shame they must have felt when collecting the royalty checks for what many call the worst song of the decade.

12 February 2009

From the Atlantic, a look behind the Gregg withrawal and the Republicans refusal to accept the results of the last election:

Judd Gregg approached the Obama administration to see if he could be a part of it...assuming that his own party wasn't going to adopt a policy of total warfare against the newly elected president in a time of enormous economic peril.

[One can't help but be] taken aback by the force of the Republican assault. Even in a downturn as swift and alarming as this one, even after an election that clearly favored one approach over another, even after the most conciliatory efforts by an incoming president in memory, these people have gone to war against the President. The President should stay cool.

The rest of us should realize [that the Republicans have declared war on Obama]. Their clear and open intent is to do all they can, however they can, to sabotage the new administration (and the economy to boot). They want failure. Even now. Even after the last eight years. Even in a recession as steeply dangerous as this one. There are legitimate debates to be had; and then there is the cynicism and surrealism of total political war. We now should have even less doubt about what kind of people they are. And the mountain of partisan vitriol Obama will have to climb every day of the next four or eight years.

Sen. Judd Gregg (Republican-NH) withdrew as President Obama's choice for Commerce Secretary this afternoon, citing differences with the administration over the economic stimulus bill and issues regarding the 2010 census (which the Commerce Department oversees).

In a statement, Gregg said:

...it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me.

First and foremost, I hope the stimulus bill works because America needs it to work. But when I see shit like this, I also want it to work so that the President and his party can go to voters in 2010 and say, "these guys didn't want to fix the economy, and in fact hoped it would fail." If things are going at least nominally well by the mid-term, that argument will hand the GOP a third straight devastating loss. And it will be more than deserved.

Who Should Replace Gregg?

It can argued that Fred Hochberg, the openly gay former president and COO of the Lillian Vernon Corporation, is an ideal candidate. Last month President Obama named Mr. Hochberg chair of the Export-Import Bank, but that can be undone easily in order to install him in the Commerce post.

The man's resume speaks for itself: President Clinton's #2 guy at the Small Business Administration; several years as the Dean of the New School's Milano School of Management; and board member of the NY/NJ Port Authority. As the President continues to surround himself with experience and competence, Hochberg should be given serious consideration for Commerce Secretary.

Will Obama nominate him? Probably not. But Hochberg would be a tremendously better pick than fuckin' Judd Gregg.

My favorite place to shop for groceries is Trader Joe's. Not only are their food choices better than the big grocery chains, but their prices can't be beat (especially in this economy). So, when a co-worker sent me this clip yesterday, I couldn't wait to post it here on the blog. It is absolutely brilliant!

In addition to her bedazzled windmill hat, Aretha Franklin's unfortunate phrasing during her performance at President Obama's inauguration last month provided a week's worth of discussion out here in the blogosphere.

And so, kudos to this YouTube hot shot, who produced a "remix" of Franklin's performance that morning. It's groovy, tightly produced, and essential to any "after party" music collection...

American and true patriot Amy Brian has served in the Kansas National Guard since 1991. In 2004, her unit was sent to fight in George W. Bush's mismanaged Iraq War. While there, Brian was driving a light mobile tactical vehicle in a convoy when they were delayed in Baghdad. While there, her unit was hit by an IED, or improvised explosive device. None of the troops was seriously injured, and the convoy soon continued on its mission.

This past August, after some nosy bitch co-worker (who obviously has way too much time on her hands) reported to officials that she saw Brian kissing another woman, the reservist was handcuffed and taken into custody, where she was informed that she was being removed from her unit while an investigation is conducted for homosexual conduct.

An American patriot if ever there was one, this woman put her life on the line in Iraq. And now she's being told she can't serve because of who she loves in her private life?

Let me tell you...this is one issue on which I won't budge. If President Obama doesn't keep his promise to repeal the pitiful and cowardly "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy before the end of his first term, then this voter is going to have an awfully hard time supporting him for a second term.

Too many Americans have been removed from service over this archaic policy - Americans whose contributions to national service are too important to be stymied: interpreters, navy seals, the list goes on and on. This policy is an embarrassment and needs to go away.

This stimulus bill is huge, so disastrous, and so harmful to our country that even though Obama has been in office for less than a month, I think it's already fair to label him as one of the worst Presidents in American history.

-John Hawkins at Right Wing News, having shit-fits over the passing of the economic stimulus bill.

Then this fascist idiot really sticks his foot in it:

I'd like to amend what I said just a little bit. [Obama is] one of the worst Presidents in American history - and the worst is yet to come!

...After watching Obama's horrific cabinet appointments, all the broken campaign promises, the arrogance, the terrible policy decisions, and the incompetence -- I think it's entirely possible that he will turn out to be the single, worst President in American history. This guy is like the anti-Lincoln. What Lincoln saved, Obama is working to destroy.

With people like this spouting off the party line, it's very easy to understand why the Republican Party has been absolutely battered at the polls in the last two federal elections.

A couple of co-workers and I, on occasion, like to mention a really bad song from the 80s in an evil effort to put that song in each others heads for the rest of the work day. Well, last night I thought to myself: "Self! What a lovely thing it would be to share such an effort with your readers." And so I present my gift to you for the next few weeks...

"Shitty Diddies - The 80s" - really (REALLY) bad songs from the decade (and there were OH so many). Let's start things off with this top ten shitty diddy from "Dr. Noah Drake" himself, Rick Springield. This hunk o' junk reached #9 in the spring of 1983.

11 February 2009

House and Senate negotiators agreed to a $789 billion stimulus package this afternoon.

Final votes in both chambers could come as soon as Thursday with the bill reaching President Obama's desk on Friday.

Despite the messiness of the legislative process, it's a very big victory for Obama. In the short run, massive amounts of spending on popular projects around the country will only enhance the new president's stature. He also scores points for acting in a bipartisan fashion even if few Republicans voted for the deal.

Of course, in the longer run, Obama's fate is ultimately tied to whether the economy turns around. Time will tell.

I am confident this will go a long way toward turning this economy around. It'll be a very rough year or two, but had the government done nothing we could have seen a major depression through the end of the next decade.

President Obama is Rev. Frank Scott to the Republican leadership's Mike Rogo:

It is very interesting to watch how this crisis reveals and highlights character: the sniveling privileged Wall Street upper-crust, the semi-hysterical, uninformed punditocracy, the puerile Republican opposition - and Obama, cool as a cucumber, playing his game, five steps ahead, setting up moves that won't come to fruition for months or years, while his opposition flails at the thin air where he used to be. I love it.

It's the future that is calling Obama, not the present.

The Republican reaction to this stimulus package is on a par with McCain suspending his campaign during the primary to "handle" the economic crisis back in Washington. Completely clueless, cynical empty gestures. They think we'll forget. They're wrong. What Karl Rove wanted, and was willing to steal by any means necessary, Obama will get, handed to him as a free gift by the American people: real political power, the power to transform society for a generation or more.

My take? I think the stimulus bill is nowhere near perfect, but I understand that everything possible needs to be done to rescue our economy.

LIke the writer above, I also understand that Mr. Obama tends to work several steps ahead, seeing things coming down the road well before we do. And right now, I trust him completely to lead us out of this mess. The Republicans? They got us into this shit pile, so why would anyone in their right mind trust them?

Now that the Senate has passed their version of the economic recovery bill by a vote of 61 to 37, negotiators from the chamber will meet with counterparts from the House to reconcile differences in the two bills. That's generally how things work with any bill before a final version is sent to the president for signature.

However, things are so dire that the White House has injected himself into the process. The President met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel spent the evening with congressional negotiators in an effort to get this thing finished.

Meg Whitman, a key player in the failed presidential bids of Mitt Romney and John McCain, and the woman who drove eBay into a ditch, has announced that she is a candidate for the 2010 Republican nomination for governor of California.

Out and proud Matthew Mitcham, Australia's Olympic gold-medal darling, who got his first major sponsorship this week with Telstra. Before signing with the giant telecommunications company, the gay diver struggled to attract interest from the corporate world despite his perfect-10 dive in the Beijing games.

2. Private-public purchases of questionable assets; as I understand it, private investors would be the junior partners, so this is probably not a big giveaway (unless there’s huge public financing, in which case it amounts to ring-fencing after all). I also suspect it wouldn’t accomplish much, but no harm, no foul.

3. Stress test: everything depends on how this is actually implemented. What happens if, or more likely when, a major money center bank is stress-tested and found to have negative net worth? One possibility is that the auditors are told to come up with a different answer; that’s a big concern. The other is that the bank is effectively nationalized; as I read the language that could be achieved as part of the public capital injection.

So what is the plan? I really don’t know, at least based on what we’ve seen today. But maybe, maybe, it’s a Trojan horse that smuggles the right policy into place.

No details at all on the foreclosure program, and precious few beyond platitudes about the mechanisms for dealing with toxic assets. The only real new information is the amount: $1 trillion total, $500 billion to start. I don't envy Geithner his position. But he's known this was coming for months. I expected a little more than telling us that he wanted to spend a lot of money to help banks clean up their balance sheets. We knew that much already.

The lack of detail has spooked some. But isn't selling of bank stocks a good sign? I mean: the market has accepted that banks will face a reckoning. Which is what we need if we are to move beyond this.

...This is a process, and not a declaration. The stimulus package may not be perfect but it will surely help arrest a downward spiral in demand; the bank bailout will require pragmatic adjustment, just as we were forced into in the 1930s, but the goals are clear enough, and the means of accountability pretty open.

...This is a pragmatic president and people are hoping for total ideological clarity and swift, complete answers in the first few weeks. Well, when I say "people" I mean Washington. I get the sense that most Americans out there are ready to give him some time.

KNGY-FM, the gay-friendly dance music station here in San Francisco, finished the month of January in the ratings shitter. Of 43 stations measured in the SF/Oakland/San Jose market, Energy 92.7 finished at an abysmal #38.

That's quite an anemic number for a market the size of San Francisco (the 4th largest in the nation). I'm no expert, but it seems to me that owner and proprietor Joe Bayliss (and his Flying Bear Media company) might want to consider a format change of some sort before one of the media giants scoops in and pulls the station out from under him. I can't see a company like Clear Channel going to the mat for the LGBT community the same way Bayliss and his staff have.

This is not bipartisanship that I envisioned after the election was over.

-Sen. Lindsay Graham (Fascist-SC), crying like a little baby yesterday over the fact that a GOP filibuster threat against the stimulus bill was stopped in the Senate.

I'm sure the bipartisanship Sen. Graham envisioned included "President McCain" asking "House Speaker John Boehner" to pass a bill giving a tax holiday to those making $5 million a year. But, whoops! Something happened on the way to January 20th.

Never mind that President Obama made a special trip to Capitol Hill to meet with House Republicans, another trip to meet with Senate Republicans, and never mind that he invited Republican leaders to the White House...oh...and never mind that the President asked Sen. Dick Lugar (Republican-IN) to fly with him on Air Force One for his trip to the Senator's home state yesterday to visit the citizens of Eckhardt, a town devastated by the economic downturn, only to have the Senator refuse.

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohmed et. al. v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

The case involves five men who claim to have been victims of extraordinary rendition. Two are now free and suing San Jose-based Jeppesen Dataplan, a subsidiary of Boeing, for aiding the CIA in flying them to other countries where they were held and tortured for what turned out to be no reason.

What the fuck is the President thinking?

Last November we voted to end the failed economic policies of the last eight years, but at the same time that vote demanded an end to the questionable and illegal goings on in this battle against terrorism.